Secret Empire Reading Order

To say the build to Marvel’s 2017 Secret Empire has been controversial would be an egregious understatement. The Marvel Universe has been defined by transformation since Secret Wars, with none more well documented than Nick Spencer’s politically charged run on Captain America.

The progression of Captain America from Steve Rogers to Sam Wilson (most commonly known as Falcon) goes all the way back to 2014 and Marvel NOW!, and continues to serve as the most logical starting point for the various Cap storylines in play.

Secret Empire Trade Reading Order

The Road to Secret Empire

The original ‘Secret Empire’ story arc is a Watergate era political thriller from Captain America writer Steve Englehart. You don’t need this storyline to understand the current state of Marvel’s Captain America and Secret Empire event, but seeing as it shares a name, it’s a worthy reference point.

As they did with Secret Wars, Marvel has put together a “fast track” prelude guide to prepare readers for Secret Empire.

These prelude fast tracks leave out a lot of detail, and in my estimation really diminishes the impact of the full story. This prelude in particular will explain the aging of Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson (Falcon’s) progression to Captain America, and how Captain America: Steve Rogers was warped to side with Hydra.

Naturally, starting with issue #16 of Rick Remender’s Marvel Now Cap run will be a confusing plunge into a backstory entailing Captain America’s 15 issue stay in Arnim Zola’s Dimension Z. This is why the prelude includes only Captain America #21.

My recommendation here is to either read the full Remender Cap run, starting with Captain America #1 (2012 to 2014), or to just plunge ahead to the next volume setting up Sam Wilson as Cap.

The first Sam Wilson as Captain America arcs round out Rick Remender’s time writing the Captain America universe. These will be less essential than the Spencer comics in terms of Secret Empire, but make for solid reading and set the stage.

Avengers Standoff is the first Captain America centric event from Nick Spencer, and is where the road to Secret Empire really picks up steam. This is essential reading to understanding where the Marvel Universe stands.

As the “Hail Hydra” collection name implies, Spencer’s creative decision to warp Steve Rogers into an agent of Red Skull and Hydra is the fulcrum for all proceedings here on out. For good or ill, this will unquestionably go down as one of the most memorable moments in Captain America history.

You should only read Captain America: Steve Rogers issues #1 to #3 prior to Civil War 2!

Issue by Issue Secret Empire Reading Order

Rise of the Secret Empire (Marvel Universe)

Deadpool continues his recent trend of maddeningly out of step event tie-ins, although unlike Civil War 2, Deadpool’s first core Secret Empire tie-in actually has major ramifications for the event! For those keeping along in real-time, Deadpool #31 was released the same week of Secret Empire #3, but the issue notes declare it takes place before Secret Empire #0. Personally, I think it makes the most sense in direct connection with Deadpool’s prelude tie-in in #27, as none of the real Secret Empire event has taken place yet.

Secret Empire: Opening Salvo

Unlike Thunderbolts and Cap: Steve Rogers, U.S. Avengers has not been a part of the build to Secret Empire, so issue #5 is the first instance we see Roberto De Costa’s unit clearly influenced by Steve Rogers. As you’d expect, the majority of this issue will make more sense if you’ve been keeping up with U.S. Avengers to date (expect that for any new series suddenly tying in to an event).

You can definitely understand Secret Empire #0 without this tie-in, although I suspect it will begin to play more of a role later.

Jim Zub’s Thunderbolts comes to a series conclusion with this opening salvo tie-in, and Thunderbolts remains the most heavily connected book not written by Nick Spencer. Essential developments here for Bucky, Kobik, and Baron Zemo.

Although both U.S. Avengers #6 and Ultimates^2 #7 were published after Secret Empire #2, they both belong in the opening salvo section of the guide. Both issues effectively add to the developments of Secret Empire #0!

Doctor Strange’s first Secret Empire tie-in gives us our first look at Manhattan trapped in a Darkforce dimension with mystical beasts roaming wild and a bearded Strange hanging on by a thread to protect any shred of humanity.

This is one of the better tie-ins so far, and reads a lot like a core event supplement, with meaningful appearances by the likes of Daredevil, Spider-Woman, Ben Urich and more!

Released after Secret Empire #3 but does not appear to deal with any ramifications of those issues. The “Giant-Man” short story clearly occurs in the early days of the Hydra takeover. A highly unnecessary anthology, with an Invaders, new Giant-Man, and Gwenpool story.

I’ll note here that the Brave New World Namor subplot becomes increasingly important by it’s 5th and final issue. You could quite reasonably read the whole anthology before Secret Empire #8.

Hail Hydramerica

Free Comic Book Day 2017 Secret Empire

Although it was released 3 days after Secret Empire #1, Marvel’s FCBD special clearly takes place before the events of event issue #1, and helps fill in some of the action between issue #0 and #1.

For the most part, FCBD ’17 Secret Empire raises far more questions than answers. Hopefully the major “Wait, what?!” moments will be explored and explained as the event continues.

Secret Warriors #1 is our first look at the resistance to Hydra, and the first post-Hydra takeover issue in terms of publication order. Time will tell how vital a role this team plays, but definitely an essential read for Agents of SHIELD fans.

Rise of the Resistance

The majority of Sam Wilson #22 fills in the backstory of what Sam’s been up to during the rise of Secret Empire, but the issue concludes right at the end of Secret Empire #2. In my opinion reads best as a flashback adding context to the core event’s second issue.

Steve Rogers #17 focuses on an interview with the revealed Hydra leader Captain America, and if nothing else, just how weird it is to see Steve dressed in green and gold.

This felt surprisingly stationary for the book that drove us to Secret Empire, but the issue does reveal Hydra alliances, Hydra nation practices, and a bit more into how Hydra is marketing itself as an acceptable world leader.

Unfortunately, Secret Warriors so far is nowhere close to living up to the excellent 2008 series of the same name. The tie-ins do continue to explore the Hydra ruled America in a way we haven’t really seen elsewhere, though.

Ties in very directly to the roles of Black Widow and the Champions during the core Secret Empire series. I didn’t know I was looking for “The Sound of Music” parallels, but I’m kind of glad it happened.

This is the lone issue of Brave New World that drops a major plot bomb for Secret Empire as a whole. Honestly, this issue doesn’t really respect publication order and the apparent reveal intended in Secret Empire #8. Chronologically, it’s definitely before the issue, but you could just as plausibly read as a flashback after Secret Empire #8.

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Well I thought that’s what this site about, to PROVIDE a decent reading order, no matter how old the event is. (based on the comments, it wasn’t revisited in the past year, so I think the admin should take a look, right?)

He didnt even update the marvel legacy reading order when it was just starting, but I learn to take what it’s free, accept it and dont complain!
But again, this order was very nice to follow and there aren’t any problems

Are you trying to provide an incorrect reading order guide on purpose? Because it seems like that’s what you’re doing. I’ll comment my own once the whole event is over to show you the dozens of errors I see already, but I feel compelled now to mention that Steve Rogers #19 has to take place after Secret Empire #7, not #6. I say this because someone undoubtedly is going to use this list and read Rogers 19 before Empire 7 and have it spoiled.

I somehow get the same feeling overall, or he is just sloppy in his reading…
nevertheless Dave has no eye for little Details that give hints on placement of some Issues.

e.g. I would put Doctor Strange #21+ after Secret Empire #1 because Strange says to Jessica that he collected everything for the Spell over a time of 2 weeks, so it can not take place directly after the dome gets dropped in Secret Empire #0…

Are you aware that Dave is trying to put pretty much everything Marvel into some kind of an order? It’s hard enough figuring out a single event these days before the event is over with, much less multiple things at once. That takes a ton of dedication, and I have yet to find on online order that is comparatively comprehensive that also has no mistakes.

At least if you tell Dave where something goes, he usually moves it. You shouldn’t be annoyed with people like him who tirelessly try to help us organize these things, you should be annoyed with comic companies who make his job necessary in the first place by being so disorganized.

Also, Dave deserves a shout out for trying to tell us if the issue is relevant on a scale of 1 to 5. So few sites do that, even if they do have an order. As much as I would love to read everything in order the first time, to me the bigger annoyance is wasting time and money on issues that have nothing to do with anything and that I only got because they were supposed to be tie-ins.

I think that you’re wrong putting the Guardians of the Galaxy Annual so far behind, considering that you put Mighty Captain Marvel #6 after Secret Empire #5. The Guardians go looking for allies during that Captain Marvel issue.

P.S. If you claim that the “full MCU transformation” starts here just because of Yondu Udonta and the Ravagers, know that Humphries already presented them during his Star-Lord run.

I concur. In addition to the other numerous changes I would make to this carelessly organized-list, I would say those two go as: Mighty Captain Marvel #6, the Annual, and then Secret Empire #3. First of all, Mighty 6 goes before the Annual for the same reason stated in the comment I am replying to. Secondly, in the Annual the Guardians of the Galaxy reveal where they have first looked for help, whereas in Empire 3 they are merely looking for help, meaning they are STILL looking, so it takes place after the Annual.

I believe it takes place between Captain America: Steve Rogers #15 and Opening Salvo (USAvengers #5 and etc). Rogers 15 take place right after Uncanny Avengers #22, and 23 doesn’t necessarily take place right after its previous issue, however Uncanny 23 definitely takes place before any of the Opening Salvo events.

I’m also going to go ahead and assume (because this site hasn’t been updated yet) that Deadpool #31 takes place after Uncanny 23 and before Opening Salvo; in Uncanny 23, Steve Rogers asked Deadpool to go on some sort of mission, and it seems that Deadpool 31 is that mission, which also definitely takes place before Opening Salvo.